Keyword: twostatesolution

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday said that after a new Israeli government has been sworn in he will investigate whether there are "realistic options" for a return to peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), Reuters reports. "Once a new government has been sworn in, the Secretary-General will explore with Prime Minister Netanyahu realistic options for a return to meaningful negotiations on a two state solution," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, after Netanyahu was able to clinch a deal to form a coalition hours before a deadline. Dujarric also said Ban was "deeply concerned by recent...

What does the State Department’s Wendy Sherman do with her spare time when not negotiating weak nuclear deals with rogue regimes? The same as the rest of the Obama foreign-policy team: threaten Israel with diplomatic isolation at the United Nations. Sherman issued some thinly veiled threats yesterday in remarks to a gathering of Reform movement leaders in which she made clear that the administration expects the next Israeli government to do its bidding with respect to supporting a two-state solution with the Palestinians. While there’s nothing new about this insistence, Sherman’s language followed the same pattern as other remarks issued...

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said the United States should not be attempting to tell Israel how to negotiate peace with the Palestinians, and he wouldn’t do so if elected president. “Israel is a sovereign nation, and I trust the leaders of Israel to determine whether they want to adopt a one-state solution or a two-state solution,” Cruz said in an interview broadcast Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” The Obama administration has “demonstrated an arrogance that America’s going to dictate the terms of security in Israel. It’s not our place to do it,” Cruz said. …

<p>Ugh. Our petulant man-child Muslim president and his Israel-hating administration are now threatening that they just might agree to a UN Security Council resolution that would call for Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and push them into negotiations to create a palestinian state.</p>

Days after vowing not to establish a Palestinian state, Netanyahu says something else in his first post-election interview. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has retracted his pre-election statements, according to which he would not allow a Palestinian state to be established. "I don't want a one-state solution. I want a sustainable, peaceful two-state solution," Netanyahu said Thursday in an interview with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell. "I haven't changed my policy." Netanyahu said his earlier comments were a reflection of changing conditions on the Palestinian side, pointing to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's pact to form a unity government with Hamas, which Israel,...

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said in remarks published Sunday that Egypt is prepared to send troops into a future Palestinian state to assist local police and guarantee Israel’s security. In comments to Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera, el-Sissi said the troops would be stationed there temporarily to establish confidence. In a clarifying statement later, his office said the idea is a way to encourage Israel to accept a two-state solution. …

Assistant Spokeswoman for the German Foreign Ministry Susan Shibley said on Friday that her country would not follow in the footsteps of Sweden and recognize a Palestinian State, Anadolu news agency said. She was speaking at a press conference held in Berlin. She said that her country has been supporting a solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on the two-state plan via a deal between the Israeli and the Palestinians. …

Irish senators have adopted a non-binding motion on Palestine recognition, as the EU prepares to set out new red lines on Israel relations. The motion, tabled by Averil Power from the opposition Fianna Fáil party, passed without a vote on Wednesday (22 October) after winning cross-party support. It urges the Irish government “to formally recognize the state of Palestine and do everything it can to help secure a viable two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”. Power told the Senate that in the past 20 years “while pretending to talk peace … [Israel’s] illegal settlements in the West Bank have trebled...

For more than 20 years since the Oslo process began, those urging Israel to make more and more concessions to the Palestinians have based their views on the belief that both peoples supported a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict. But a new poll of Palestinian public opinion shows that an overwhelming majority opposes any goal other than eliminating the State of Israel. The poll, conducted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, showed some interesting and, in part, contradictory results. Only 27.3 percent of Palestinians support a two-state solution. By contrast, more than two-thirds see the restoration...

Synopsis A manifesto that exposes the flaws in the two-state policy of the United States toward Israel and the Palestinians and offers a direct and powerful call for Israeli sovereignty in the region. The reigning consensus in elite and academic circles is that the United States must seek to resolve the Palestinians' conflict with Israel by implementing the so-called two-state solution. Establishing a Palestinian state, so the thinking goes, would be a panacea for all the region’s ills. It would end the Arab world’s conflict with Israel, because the reason the Arab world is anti-Israel is that there is no...

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed on Tuesday the formation of the new Palestinian “unity government” which includes the Hamas terrorist group. In a statement, Ban expressed hope that new opportunities for progress towards a two-State solution with Israel will emerge soon, saying the UN had received assurances that the Hamas-Fatah deal would be implemented on the basis of previous commitments such as the recognition of Israel and non-violence. …

The assumption that Israel must accept the Kerry plan as a basis for negotiations with the Palestinian Authority — lest it risk a rift with the U.S. — should be assessed in light of the full context of U.S.-Israel strategic cooperation, the imploding Arab street, the unique foundations and nature of U.S.-Israel ties, the U.S. political system, the ineffectiveness of prior U.S. plans and Israel’s own security requirements. U.S.-Israel strategic cooperation transcends the Palestinian issue. Despite the 66-year-old disagreement between the two governments about the ways and means to resolve the Palestinian issue, strategic cooperation has catapulted tounprecedented heights. Notwithstanding...

President Barack Obama is not as optimistic as his Secretary of State regarding the possibility of peace between Israel and the Arabs. Obama, who gave an interview to the New Yorker magazine on Sunday, said that he believed the odds of reaching a peace agreement were less than 50%. The President told the magazine’s editor David Remnick that these odds were true in all three of his main initiatives in the region—with Iran, with Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) and with Syria. “On the other hand,” he said, “in all three circumstances we may be able to push the...

“In every aspect, it seems the world is losing its patience for us,” Finance Minister Yair Lapid told Ynet on Friday, following reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued tenders for 1,400 new settlement homes. […] Lapid said he believed the world’s impatience with Israel is manifested in many aspects. “In the case of Horizon 2020, we’ve managed to prevent the damage, and then we were suddenly faced with the ASA boycott. We couldn’t generate any effect around the Iranian deal, because we weren’t loud enough, and that is due to the fact that our status is not as it...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is being mocked in a new video, part of a campaign by nationalists warning against Kerry’s plans to impose an agreement with the Palestinian Authority (PA) on Israel. The campaign is being co-sponsored by the Yisrael Sheli (My Israel) movement, along with the Yesha Council and the Binyamin Regional Council. The video which was produced as part of the campaign mocks Kerry for his “creative” but useless solutions to Israel’s security problems. Kerry is presented as running a company called “John Kerry Solutions Ltd.”, the motto of which is, “We don’t have good solutions,...

A majority of both Israelis and Palestinians support a peace agreement based on the two-state solution formula, a Hebrew University poll found, though many respondents reported that they were skeptical as to the sustainability of such an agreement in the long term. The study, conducted jointly by the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah, found that 63 percent of Israelis and 53% of Palestinians support the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, the university said in a statement...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed the Palestinians for the apparent stalemate in their peace talks, accusing them of creating "artificial crises" and incitement. He spoke after talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is attempting to revive the peace process. The direct negotiations launched in July have shown little sign of progress and are due to end next April. Mr Kerry will later meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The secretary of state has denied media speculation that he may propose a new interim peace deal. Kerry confident Mr Netanyahu said Israel stood by the terms...

Secretary of State John Kerry and an elite US diplomatic team met with a small group of American Jewish leaders at the White House Thursday night to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that resumed last month. edit Kerry told the leaders that one of the lynchpins of the current peace process is the separation of Israel’s security assurances from the general negotiations, assurances he said would be guaranteed in a separate agreement with the US. The security track is being worked out under the auspices of retired Marine Corps general John Allen, who is currently Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s special...

U.S. President Barack Obama welcomed the imminent start of renewed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians on Monday, but urged both sides to approach them with honesty, AFP reported Monday evening. "The most difficult work of these negotiations is ahead, and I am hopeful that both the Israelis and Palestinians will approach these talks in good faith," he said. Obama thanked his own top diplomat, Secretary of State John Kerry, for organizing the talks, which were to begin later Monday in Washington with an initial exchange between top negotiators. "I am pleased that Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu and [Palestinian...

Tony Blair was in Jerusalem ­yesterday to urge Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu: “Give peace a chance.” The ex-Labour Prime Minister, now a go-between in new Middle East peace talks, told Israel’s leader to get a move on with ­concessions to the Palestinians. Mr Netanyahu agreed to free at least 100 Palestinians who have been held in Israeli jails for more than 20 years. In return it is expected that the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas will relax his demand that a future Palestinian state must be based on the border from before the 1967 Six-Day War. Hopes of lasting peace in...

I think we are all in a bit of shock over Bibi’s plan to release 104 Arab terrorists. While Bibi is surprised at the push-back he’s getting. After all, this isn’t the first time that Israel has released terrorists, nor the first time that Israel has released terrorists in a lop-sided deal. So while Bibi expected lip-service attacks, he wasn’t expecting this all-out full-frontal revolt, including from his most closest associates. But this is the first time that Israel has released terrorists in exchange for nothing. Literally nothing. Not Gilad Shalit, not dead soldier’s bodies, not even a signature. Simply...

Israeli and Palestinian leaders will resume face-to-face peace talks on Monday in Washington, the State Department said Sunday. The restart of the long-stalled talks is being attributed to Secretary of State John Kerry's six months of frenetic shuttle diplomacy. Agency spokeswoman Jen Psaki said both sides had accepted invitations from Kerry to come to Washington "to formally resume direct final status negotiations" that are scheduled to begin Monday evening and continue Tuesday. Psaki said in a statement that Kerry on Sunday called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and that the leaders agreed the talks would...

While the BDS movement calls for an international boycott of Israel for its alleged brutal occupation of Judea and Samaria, and its “siege” of Gaza—farmers from Gaza took part last week in a seminar for farmers inside Israel. The office of the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a part of the IDF, reported this week that last Wednesday and Thursday, two groups of Arab farmers totaling 60 people left Gaza in order to attend an agricultural seminar in northern Israel, designed to advance the Gaza agricultural sector. …

Palestinians have a hidden history of appreciating Israel that contrasts with their better-known narrative of vilification and irredentism. The former has been particularly evident of late, especially since Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, floated a trial balloon in October about transferring some Arab-dominated areas of eastern Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority. As he rhetorically asked about Israeli actions in 1967, "Was it necessary to annex the Shuafat refugee camp, al-Sawahra, Walajeh, and other villages, and then to state that these are part of Jerusalem? One can ask, I admit, some legitimate questions about this." In one swoop, this statement transformed...

There is no denying that by applying for Israeli citizenship, in defiance of PLO and Hamas warnings, they are actually making clear that they would rather live under Israel than any Arab rule. The Palestinian Authority says it is worried because of the rise in the number of Palestinians from Jerusalem who are seeking Israeli citizenship ...

According to face-to-face surveys conducted according to the highest international standards, more Palestinians in east Jerusalem would prefer to become citizens of Israel rather than citizens of a new Palestinian state. In addition, 40 percent said they would probably or definitely move in order to live under Israeli rather than Palestinian rule. 44 percent of the Palestinians in Jerusalem say they are very, or at least somewhat, satisfied with their standard of living. This is a very high percentage compared to other populations in the Arab world. Only about 30 percent sympathize with either Fatah or Hamas or with the...

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni warned on Monday that Israel runs the risk of a European economic boycott if it fails to advance peace talks with the Palestinian Authority. "You cannot deal only with economic issues and ignore the political issue and the importance of a two-state solution," she told delegates at an accountancy conference in Eilat, according to AFP. "Europe is boycotting products. And, true, it is starting with the settlements but their problem is with Israel, which is perceived as a colonial state, so it won't only stop with the settlements, but will (reach) Israel as a whole," warned...

JERUSALEM — Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, known for his rigid negotiating positions, has been sending signals that he is ready for significant compromises in a peace deal with the Palestinians — and that he accepts the narrative increasingly favored by his opponents that says ending the West Bank occupation is essential for Israel itself. While some of Netanyahu's political allies say he is serious, the Palestinians remain skeptical. This week's visit by Secretary of State John Kerry could show which way things can go. In recent speeches, Netanyahu has stressed the importance of reaching a peace deal, saying it...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday issued a stark warning to Israel to resume long-stalled peace talks with the Palestinian Authority, saying that if efforts fail now they may never get another chance. "We are running out of time. We're running out of possibilities... If we do not succeed now, we may not get another chance," Kerry told a forum held by the American Jewish Community, according to the AFP news agency. Kerry’s warning came amid reports that he is planning to return to the Middle East region within days, for his fifth trip to Israel since he...

Delaying the so-called “two-state solution” is an historical mistake, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni claimed on Monday. Livni, who is in charge of the peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, spoke at the American Jewish Committee 2013 Global Forum in Washington, D.C. She warned in her speech of “devastating consequences” for Israel in case U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s latest attempt to renew peace talks fails. “Time is working against those who believe that two states is the only Zionist way to maintain our identity,” Livni said. “There are those who want to postpone this decision, but it would be...

Bayit Yehudi leader slams Peres' speech calling for two-state solution, says withdrawal from land leads to deaths. Withdrawal from land leads to deaths, Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett said on Monday in a response to President Shimon Peres’s speech calling for a two-state solution. “I value our president, but the concept of withdrawals failed and brought thousands of victims,” Bennett said at a Bayit Yehudi faction meeting. “Every time we give up land, people are killed.” Bennett called for the government to declare that “this is our land, and it is not for sale.” The government’s job is to...

AL SHUNAH, Jordan: US Secretary of State John Kerry unveiled on Sunday a plan to boost the Palestinian economy by attracting $4 billion in private investment, saying it could transform the lives of the people. As he seeks to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the table to negotiate a peace deal, Kerry said it was also imperative to create jobs and meet the hopes of young people for a better economic future. He has tasked Tony Blair, the Quartet's special envoy to the Middle East, with drawing up a plan to revitalise the West Bank through boosting industries...

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who is currently visiting Israel, said in an interview with Sky News that Israel has lost some support in Britain and in other European countries due to its settlement construction policy. He warned that the window of opportunity for Israel and the Palestinians to agree to form a two-state solution was closing fast. …

WASHINGTON, April 23 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday thanked the emir of Qatar for the "excellent relationship" between the two countries with respect to security and trade. "Qatar has been a center of innovation," Obama said after their bilateral meeting in the Oval Office. "We've seen enormous progress within the country on everything ranging from education to health care. And I think His Highness has shown extraordinary leadership over the last many years in helping to guide this country. "Obviously, Qatar is also an important country in the region, and has an influence that extends beyond its relatively...

Prior to President Barack Obama’s trip to Israel, he, Secretary of State John Kerry and others reiterated their commitment to a “two-state solution.” We strongly oppose the use of this term – and not for political reasons. One should stop using this term even if one believes that establishing a Palestinian state is necessary to secure a final resolution and peace. The phrase should be dropped as a major misnomer, because it is inaccurate and false. This term “two-state solution” falsely implies – even claims – that Israel is not yet a state, that it is not a sovereign, independent,...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is willing to agree to the creation of a Palestinian state in provisional borders, even before his conditions for a final-status agreement are met, former minister and veteran peace activist Yossi Beilin said. “I don’t think that Netanyahu, who is far from being a warmonger — he’s a very cautious person — [is ready to commit to] a permanent solution. Not because he doesn’t want it — all of us want it — but because he’s not ready to pay the price,” Beilin said Monday night. “But to speak about a provisional border with the Palestinians,...

Long-strained ties between Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama sprang to the fore of Israel’s election campaign on Wednesday after the U.S. president was quoted as criticizing the prime minister’s character. Less than a week before a January 22 ballot that opinion polls predict the right-wing Netanyahu will win easily, Israeli media highlighted a U.S. commentator’s column on Obama and questioned whether the Democratic president was trying to sway the vote. Netanyahu’s office declined comment on Tuesday’s unsourced column by Bloomberg’s Jeffrey Goldberg, which described Obama as frustrated at West Bank settlement building that has deepened Israel’s diplomatic impasse with the...

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney supports a two-state solution to solve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, he told CNN during his visit to Jerusalem. In an interview with the American news network, which took place in Jerusalem on Sunday, Romney was asked if he saw the starting point for negotiations as the borders which existed prior to the 1967 Six Day War. He responded by saying, “I'm not being that specific. I'm saying that there will be borders that have to be negotiated and what the starting point is something which will be decided by the...

Obama has recently revealed his plan for regulating the Middle East conflict. Basically, the President wants negotiations to start with an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 border, and go from there. Here is a brief explanation why even the precondition for negotiations is unachievable. 1. Indefensible borders. Look at the map above, one does not need to be a general to see the problem. After the withdrawal Israel will be around 10 miles thick in the middle, a column of tanks could cut the nation in two in half an hour. Every major Israeli population point will be within striking...

The War for Israel’s Independence By Ari Bussel Israel’s enemies are becoming more and more vicious in their attacks. They claim to anyone who would still listen that it is the last attempt to save Israel from herself. To them the Palestinians are the answer, in fact the glorified goal, and cannot do anything wrong; Israel is at fault. They no longer sound reliable, these “lovers of peace.” Just a few days ago they embarked on a field trip to the Palestinian village where the murderers of the five members of the Fogel Family lived. The brutal murder was a...

Anticipating a Baby by Ari Bussel A woman in labor is on a hospital bed, surrounded by teams of doctors and nurses. Outside, the hospital is overtaken by family members and pre-screened well-wishers. It seems the who’s who of the global scene have assembled in anticipation. Throngs of reporters line the entrances to the hospital and beyond them police barricades and security forces. Excitement is in the air. The world, it seems, is holding its breath, awaiting the arrival of the soon-to-be-born. Champagne bottles are chilled and banners raised everywhere. The scripts have been written. Crews are assembled in strategic...

Ifs, Ands and Buts by Ari Bussel “I understand what you are saying, Ari, the rockets launched at the City of Sderot created eight long years of horror and hardship, but…” or “the significance there was not a maritime route to Gaza is noteworthy, but there is, after all, a naval blockade causing the population to starve…” and a new all-time favorite accepted by Jews and Palestinians alike: “The Palestinians are eager for a two state solution, people living side by side in peace, but the right-wing Netanyahu Government is blocking any prospects for peace.” There always seems to be...

UN Charter: “To maintain international peace and security.” Edit LinkBy Ted Belman A movement is afoot to get the UN to predetermine borders between Israel and the future 23rd Arab state and to recognize “East Jerusalem” as its capital. Such predetermination would be in violation of the Roadmap which calls for a negotiated solution where “negotiated” implies freedom to say “no”. And such predetermination would prejudge the outcome which the world never tires of telling Israel, no one can do. I began doing research on the powers of the UN and on whether such UN predetermination would be ultra-vires its...

Obama has surrounded himself with a host of vehemently ant-Israel advisors including Lee Hamilton, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Samantha Power, Susan Rice and Gen Jones, many of who advocate imposing a solution on Israel. So it was no surprise that he started his term of office by attacking Israel, America’s best and most steadfast ally, and demanding a complete settlement freeze east of the greenline including Jerusalem. He went so far as to repudiate the US commitment set out in the Bush ’04 letter to Sharon saying there was no agreement. Elliot Abrams and others involved in the negotiations which led to...

The recent media attention garnered by the relatively new J Street lobby necessitates an examination of the very notion of the term “Pro-Israel.” Until very recently the J Street was always self-branded as “Pro-Israel”. Intensifying the matter is the case of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel spoke on November 10, 2009 at the General Assembly/GA of the Jewish Federations of North America, the largest and most important event on the U.S. Jewish establishment’s calendar. Emanuel has been called “Pro-Israel” by the media. It should be clear that the label “Pro-Israel” must be defined if the term is...

Yesterday, I commented on the NYT article The Two State Solution Doesn't Solve Anything but failed to address it on a strategic level. For years now, many, myself included, have commented on the intent of the far left and the Muslim movements on Campus and elsewhere was not to usher in the two state solution or end the occupation but to end the State of Israel. Now the NYT has brought this intent into the mainstream. In the weeks and months to come, you will see more and more voices abandoning the two-state solution for the bi-national state. Its happened...

Netanyahu's speech this week achieved a very important purpose. Egypt's reaction to his demand that the "Palestinians" recognize the fact that Israel is a Jewish state made it clear that it, too, do not recognize Israel as such. All the prime ministers who preceded Netanyahu had totally ignored this essential fact. If he would have wanted to, Netanyahu could have ignored it as well. In this respect, Netanyahu has performed a tremendous service for the state of Israel and is deserving of praise. Suddenly, Israelis learned that it is not just the stubborn "Palestinians" who do not recognize the right...

" Never ask a friend to buy a horse you wouldn't buy yourself" - (Loose translation of an old Yiddish proverb) Apply the principles urged on Israel to the United States, and you end up with a scenario something like this: The new final settlement conference between the US, Mexico, and the Aztlánistas is scheduled for late June. The agreement promises a new chapter in the relationship between the countries -- and new hope for Mexican refugees yearning for self-determination and a state of their own. For years, there have been ongoing hostilities, culminating in a rash of illegal immigration...

A total of 76 percent of Israeli Jews give some degree of support to transferring Israeli Arabs to a future Palestinian state, a poll commissioned by the Knesset Channel revealed, Monday. The poll, conducted over the Internet, included 668 adult Israeli Jews representing the entire political spectrum, cites a 3.7% margin of error. The poll asked participants whether as part of an agreement to establish a Palestinian state there would be justification to demand that Arabs with Israeli citizenship relocate to Palestinian territory. Only 24% were totally against the idea. Of the remaining 76%, 29% said all Israeli Arabs should...